


if it'd be anyone, it'd be the civil engineers

by weekend_conspiracy_theorist



Series: In the Bowels of the Ship [1]
Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 12:25:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10719309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weekend_conspiracy_theorist/pseuds/weekend_conspiracy_theorist
Summary: Scotty is pissed, and Jim is annoyed and then amused.





	if it'd be anyone, it'd be the civil engineers

There haven’t been many times in his life that Scotty’s wished for a lesser technology. This feeling upon slamming the PADD down in front of the Captain- that dramatically dropping folder stuffed full of paper, watching pieces flutter loose around the room as Kirk stared at him in shock, would have been significantly more satisfying- may even be the first ever.

He gestures sharply to the PADD. “Is this a joke?” he demands, and Kirk’s eyebrows furrow.

“I’m sorry?” He asks, in the careful but authoritative voice that means he’s annoyed but giving Scotty the benefit of the doubt.

Scotty gestures again. “Well, just look at it, Captain!”

Kirk sets the PADD he’d been scrolling through aside slowly, eyes locked with on those of his Chief Engineer, and Scotty makes a noise of annoyance and lunges for the PADD himself, turning on the screen and shoving it under Kirk’s nose. He’s toeing a line of impropriety that even Captain Kirk can’t ignore for long, but that is nothing in the face of this, this… outrage!

Kirk accepts the PADD with a slight huff of annoyance, flicking his eyes over the screen before trying to hand it back. Scotty, breathing hard, does not accept it, and Kirk sets it back on his desk with another bit off sigh. “Scotty, these are just the plans for–”

“The plans for th’ biodome me department’s been asked to collaborate on!” Scotty jabs a finger at the PADD, zooming in on one of the dimensional markers scrawled neatly by the CAD program it had been drafted in. Seething, he demands once more, “Is this a joke, Captain?”

Kirk looks at the PADD for a moment and then back at Scotty, confusion evident in his warm eyes. “Scotty, I don’t–”

“IT’S ALL IN IMPERIAL UNITS!” Scotty shouts, throwing his arms in the air. “Bloody outdated, obsolete– goddamn American civil engineers! Earth’s been united for centuries and they’re still clingin’ to their slugs and their kips and their pounds-per-square-inch by the skin o’ their smarmy –”

Kirk, bless him, doesn’t laugh, no matter how badly he wants to by the crinkling at the corners of his eyes. “Just do the conversions, Scotty,” he says, trying for soothing.

Scotty cuts himself off with a strangled noise of frustration. “Serve them right if I rewrote the entire file,” he spits, snatching the PADD back from Kirk’s desk and stalking towards the door.

“It’ll take you two minutes,” Kirk calls, laughing, just before it slides shut; Scotty’s only answer is a wordless snarl.

**Author's Note:**

> so one time a friend of mine and a mech e friend of hers were explaining the concepts of stress and strain to a non-engineering major, and so they're like "yeah, so stress is force over area, typically in units of..." and at the same time as the mech e says "MPa" my friend says "ksi"
> 
> and then they stared at each other in utter betrayal for a long moment


End file.
